(Rockville, MD - August 6, 2007) Award winning cartoonist Lynn Johnston was announced today as the winner of a 2007 Media Award from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). Johnston will receive her award on Friday, November 16, 2007, in a ceremony during the association's Convention at the Boston Convention Center.
Ms. Johnston is being honored for depicting the plight of a victim of aphasia, a disorder that results from damage to the brain's language center, in her cartoon series For Better or For Worse®. Aphasia, often the result of a stroke or traumatic brain injury, may produce difficulty in speaking, listening, reading, and writing.
The internationally syndicated cartoon For Better or For Worse® began in 1978 as a series based on Ms. Johnston's family experiences. The cartoon now appears in over 2,000 papers in Canada, the United States and 20 other countries and is translated into eight languages.
The ASHA Media Award caps off a distinguished career for Ms. Johnston. Over the years, she has received multiple honors and awards including the Reuben Award – the Oscar of the comics industry – and induction into Canada's Walk of Fame in 2003.
ASHA, located in Rockville, Maryland, is the professional, scientific, and credentialing association for more than 127,000 audiologists, speech-language pathologists, and speech, language, and hearing scientists in the United States and internationally. For more information on speech, language, and hearing disorders, consumers can log on to the ASHA Web site or call 1-800-638-TALK.
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